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Performance @ Large 8/5/2003 11:50:41 AM
The second event for a performance series that I curate, describing backstage business, performing with a broken bone, and a great set by Nicole Bindler and Alli Ross. Sunday, July 27, 2003:
I arrive early for the second Performance.Large event. Last time I arrived late, straight from the emergency room at Faulkner Hospital with my arm in a splint due to a radial head fracture resulting from tripping over my landlady's hand truck on the way to the gate. A month later and the splint is gone but the injury remains, it is painful to use my arm too much, but if I am ever to recover, it must be used, but in the interim, I use a sling when just riding public transportation, walking, or sitting in the audience. Last month I entered as Su was presenting her collective project called "Inner Roads" and was pleased by the vibe that they had created with movement, dance, and spoken word. Tommey was also excited by the program that I had assembled and was looking forward to the next show. Today, James and I would again try to do the show we planned to do last month. I free my arm and wolf down a vegetarian sub that I got at the shop down the street and change into my sweats so to stretch out before the costume change all while Tommey and I jabber away about all the projects we have going. We have lucked out for the fall and have some very special guests who will raise the stature both of the P.L series and the space in general; Tommey has finished building his darkroom; We clear up all the confusion regarding the situation at the Berwick Research Institute, etc.
James arrives with Jan and their step nephew, Thomas who is visiting from Pennsylvania, and is being given a crash course on theater this weekend with Macbeth on the Common, I Sestiani performing commedia dell'arte, and tonight our experimental work. A cute little car pulls up at the loading dock in the back and out pops our second act in Nicole and Alli. The map from Yahoomaps was awful and gave them the most convoluted directions. They are exhausted and need more time to stretch and warm up. A small audience begins to gather. I start to change into my costume in between coordinating things with every one else. I enjoy the feeling of being both a performer and impresario.
I sit on a folding chair in the bathroom, staring into a three inch by three inch mirror propped up by my canister of cold cream as I put the face powder on, then rub on the clown white, as I am doing that, Alli bursts in looking for me asking when the show is to start, she seems amused by the fact that I am only partly made up at this point. Nicole follows a few minutes later as I finish with my lipstick and wishes me "merde." One of these days I need to find out why dancers use French scatology for "good luck." At least it's better than the actor's "break a leg"-- the latter has too many implications of subconscious hostility for my tastes-- and forever reminds me of Freud's case study of "The Rat Man".
I pencil in the lines about my eyes, which have been getting more and more elaborate in recent months, pull my hood up over my hair, and place the fish hat on my head and march out into the gallery, tell everyone that the show begins in a few minutes and visit Nicole and Alli in the studio where they are warming up. They complement me on my makeup and ask if any of our set is the same as what they saw CST do at Mobius' Movement Works in Progress, which had all of us on the bill. I explain that some material is used but that it has been reshaped because Bill is no longer performing with us, when I explain that as a trio we had been working together for nearly two years, they understand the difficulty that poses. I leave Nicole and Alli to finish their stretches and begin my hosting duties.
After welcoming everyone I run behind the curtain and join James. James emerges as the cave painter figure and we do our current version of "Cosmic Spelunkers in Plato's Cave" which was the second set we did at the Bowery Poetry Club two weeks before. I feel good about the performance and the half hour zooms by quickly.
We take an intermission as Tommey climbs up on a ladder and readjusts the track lighting to Nicole's instructions. I'd be up there myself were it not for my injury. I show Alli where the stereo is, and break to wipe off my makeup and change out of costume
The two retreat backstage and I provide and introduction, mentioning some of the places I've seen them perform and shared bills with them as well as their recent tour with Lailye as The Innocents and the review in Distortion Music.
They do three pieces, the first is Alli's solo entitled "Filling Up" which I had seen at MWIP and at the Innocents show at Studio 211. This one is the best of the three. It opens with her playing with two balloons, one moving in a very unballoon like way, eventually popping and revealing a plum inside which her teeth tear into on stage, allowing the juice to drip down her chin.
The second piece, which I believe to be titled "we've come this far" is a duet, in which Alli and Nicole tumble onto the stage clutching a cloth bag filled with toiletries. Alternately they wrestle over and share the contents, which amount to a comb, some gum, toilet paper, sunscreen, and an energy bar. Gum is chewed, energy bars are eaten, hair is combed sunscreen is rubbed in, the bag is worn over the head, the comb is clenched between teeth, the gum is spit, the gum wrapper is balanced on the comb, Alli climbs up Nicole, etc. The piece teeters between a Rube Goldberg illustration, slapstick comedy, and contact improv, and in spirit reminds me of the transforming object improv that I do with James (and used to do with Bill) in "Give and Take." At one point Nicole steals the lens cap from Tommey's camera and uses it as an eye patch. I chortle loudly.
The final piece is a sequence that I have seen Nicole do in various permutations since February called "Sand in my Soda Pop." She plays the role of a teenage girl on the beach flirting with an unseen lifeguard as an old bubble gum pop song "Please don't talk to the life guard" plays. Nicole has an amazing ability to take the disposable pop tunes and turn them into complex character studies. Her character goes through the terrible anxiety of a girl with a powerful crush on someone who doesn't notice her. The girl collapses in her chair and the music becomes more introspective as Nicole rises and her movements become larger and swifter even as the character she portrays is more introverted and less interested in being noticed that the beach bunny she portrayed sitting in a chair just moments before.
The show is a success, the audience seemed to love both acts and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Tommey makes a few announcements about the gallery and we have a funny exchange that makes us sound like an old married couple who can't agree on who asked who out on the first date. I pour myself a cup of shiraz-- one of the few alcoholic beverages I actually enjoy drinking-- and chat with the audience members about the series and the performance and such. Tommey enjoyed the show and gives Nicole and Alli a tour, explains the current exhibition, and takes more photographs of them posing with the paintings.
Two months to the next P.L. I'm moving at the end of August.
